UFC on FUEL TV 8's Mark Hunt gunning for KO of Struve with title ambitions

Mark Hunt might be in the running for a UFC heavyweight title, and he might have the support of thousands of hardcore followers, who find charm in his understated personality and heavy hands.

The latter, which helped him knock silly two of his three past opponents, morphed him from washout into a contender. And the former made him something of a cult hero, which was captured perfectly by a YouTube clip highlighting his emotional state after one particular clubbing.

“I feel good,” he deadpanned.

But these things mean nothing unless he can use them against Stefan Struve, whom he meets in the co-main event of UFC on FUEL TV 8, which takes place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. (The event’s main-card airs live on FUEL TV following prelims on Facebook.)

When the 38-year-old fighter steps into the cage on Saturday, he’ll look for an answer he’s sought since he left kickboxing and took up MMA.

“To literally know whether I should progress with fighting,” Hunt said. “Because he’s the young guy, I’m the old guy, and I’ve got to quiet these voices in my head saying I’m one of the best fighters in the world.”

The last time Hunt was in the headlines, others sort of said it for him. When Alistair Overeem was scratched from a title bout against then-champ Junior dos Santos at UFC 146, his fans took to Twitter in an Internet campaign dubbed “Rally for Mark Hunt.” He was a long shot, a Rocky, and not the most marketable choice. Frank Mir got the gig.

Hunt cackles now at the notion he might have won the chance to face dos Santos, yet he looks back fondly at the support he received.

Getting past Struve (25-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC) is entirely in his hands. The 25-year-old is just about the same size as Semmy Schilt, who stopped him in a kickboxing ring five years ago with a spinning back-kick. It was the last fight on his K-1 contract, and he admits he phoned in his performance.

“Semmy was just a formality to me,” Hunt said. “I had to do that fight. I didn’t want to do K-1. I wanted to do MMA.”

Struve is gunning for a title shot and has won four straight. His length and submission skills pose big problems for Hunt, who measures 5-foot-10 and weighed in for his most recent fight at 264 pounds.

In trying to land big punches, Hunt will be exposed to them long before he’ll be able to throw. Struve claims to be a smarter fighter who keeps distance with a jab.

“He’s an extraordinary guy,” Hunt said. “I don’t even know how he can be that big at that weight at his age.”

But if there’s any time and place Hunt is going to answer his question, it’s now, and it’s inside the octagon.

“I want an opportunity to fight against the world’s best fighter in mixed martial arts,” Hunt said.

He missed his first chance seven years ago when he lost to then-dominant PRIDE champ Fedor Emelienanko. Of course, he said he was a different person the first time around. Gone are the days when training camps were unheard of. Gone are the days when smoking and drinking followed ring sessions.

Now, Hunt considers himself a man of God, and he regularly goes to church with his family. He said he’s no longer motivated by money. And unlike the past, he trains for real. He recently spent several weeks in his native New Zealand, where he underwent what he called a “modified strongman” camp so he wouldn’t be overpowered by Struve’s 6-foot-11 frame.

“I’ve become a Christian, and my beliefs are much different about what’s really important in my life,” Hunt said. “Christianity is changing my life from the inside. It’s kind of weird.”

Weird is also that there are a lot more people looking at him from the outside in these days. Friends no longer ask where he’s been after a flight back from Japan. Everybody knows where he’s going, and everybody will know what happened when he returns to his home in Sydney after the fight.

“I know what I’ve got to do here,” he said. “I’ve just got to go and put the guy out, and that’s it.”

“Hey, it’s the man,” Hunt said. The two of them met 12 years ago in the semifinals of the 2001 K-1 Grand Prix in Fukuoka, Japan. Sefo handed him a decision loss. Years later, he fought twice under the Strikeforce banner as an MMA fighter, going 1-1. Hunt is now 3-1 as a UFC fighter, six years after his PRIDE contract was transferred to the Las Vegas-based fight promotion.

Time has changed them both, but for Hunt, whose fans will be watching closely on Saturday, the future is a lot brighter than the past.

“I still love fighting, and I’m still here to try and take the world title,” he said.

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